


Found Me Out

by SleepyOwl (Indigofingers)



Series: Shots [3]
Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Detectives, Dialogue Heavy, Friendship, Gangs, Gen, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Minor Violence, Police, Sarcasm, Threats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 17:21:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17626424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indigofingers/pseuds/SleepyOwl
Summary: Being dangerous and a damsel in distress are not necessarily mutually exclusive, unfortunately.





	Found Me Out

**Author's Note:**

> Evie gets hurt like, a lot. I love hurt/comfort, okay?

Evie blew some warmth into her bare hands before answering Adam’s call. "They're inside now, where I wish I was. This is not t-shirt weather." 

"Tell me you’re wearing more than a t-shirt." 

"I'm tough. And this hoodie has fuzz on the inside." 

"You're gonna freeze to death. You know what the temperature is right now? I'll be right there." 

"Adam, you don't have to-," Evie sighed. He was so stubborn sometimes. 

Not even two minutes later, Adam pulled up to the curb. 

"What, were you just lurking around the corner?" 

"Kind of. Here." He handed her a cup of coffee and while she was savoring the warmth he wrapped a scarf around her neck and pulled a hat down over her ears. 

"I know I'm like you and Kim's adopted kid, but she and I are the same age." 

"You don't look it, except for when you're being scary. And even then you just look like a scary kid." 

"Um, thanks?" 

"So what exactly was your plan besides totally not freezing out here?" 

Evie gave him a withering look while clutching her coffee up to her lips. "I was going to call a sparrow to keep watch and then attend to other business in the area until they left. Then I was going to either beat the crap out of Oscar or ask him very, very politely to tell me what he knows about Murtagh." 

Adam pulled his shoulders together, his bones cracking in the process. "And he would just talk? Everyone we’ve brought it has been exceptionally unhelpful. Is your brand of politeness just more appealing?"

Evie shrugged. "Hardly. But he’ll talk. Or I'll beat the crap out of him." 

"You can't just go around beating people up!" 

"Uh huh," Evie snorted in his direction. 

Adam groaned. "I walked right into that one. Anyway, looks like you won't need to call anyone.” He watched figures emerge from the building across the street and saunter down the block. “Are you ready for this?" 

Evie eyed the group with apathy. "Guess I’ll be going in now." 

Adam nodded, one hand on her shoulder. "I'll follow them, you take care of Oscar. Try not to beat him too bad, okay?" 

"I'll do my best," Evie promised with a small smile. She allowed Adam to look her over once more as he judged whether this was the best plan even though she would go through with it no matter what he thought. 

"One more thing," he said finally. 

"I will not get hurt." 

"I've heard that before. From you, even." 

"I'll do my best," Evie inched away from him, "and that'll have to be good enough. Get going." 

Adam shook his head as he climbed back into his car. "You're gonna be the death of me." 

\-- 

"Kid, you're in way over your head. You don't know what you're doing." 

"No, I really think I do. And you know what else I think, Oscar?" Evie dug her knee harder into his ribs. "I think that you know that too. So why don't you just tell me where Murtagh stashed the girls and then you can get the hell out of my city and I won't take any further actions against you." 

"You can't promise that. I’m dead as soon as I talk." 

"I can't speak for the blues, but I can speak for Blackout. You'll be free to leave." 

"Chicago is my home." 

"Not anymore. Where did Murtagh hide the girls?" 

"Can you guarantee he won't kill me in retaliation?" 

Evie considered, never letting up the pressure. "Is he with them?" 

Oscar didn't look at her. 

"If he's in the wild, I can't guarantee anything." 

"Then I can't tell you anything." 

Evie smiled grimly. "Oscar, yes you can. Because if you don't," and here she ran the edge of a knife against his cheek, "no one will be able to guarantee your safety from me." 

"You're not a killer." He was grasping at straws. Evie knew she had him. Still, she didn't release him even a little. 

"Am I not?" She said it softly, trailing a single finger down his jugular. "Are you sure? How much do you even know about me? If you don't even know about how far I'll go to get what I want," Evie trailed off into a shrug. "Come on, Oscar. Tell me what I want to know." 

"You're just like your father." 

"Oh no," Evie grinned, maybe a bit madly. "I'm better. People were afraid of him, but nobody trusted him. Nobody respected him. I'm respected and trusted and when I need to be feared," Evie dropped her voice to a whisper, "I can make that happen. Right now, for instance. You fear me more than you fear Murtagh. And now, you'll tell me everything. Won't you?" 

Oscar stared at her, clearly unsettled. Even before he deflated and started to talk, Evie knew she had won. It was like a heavy weight in her stomach rather than a lightness for the victory. Although she would never show it, Evie hated to compared to her father, even when she knew she was vastly different to him. 

"How am I going to get out of the city without being attacked, huh?" 

"I'll make a call. You'll be met at the limits and escorted the rest of the way. If I ever see you again, all agreements between us will expire, understood?" 

Oscar nodded before fleeing the room. 

Evie allowed herself a brief moment to breathe before standing. Then, less than a moment later, she slumped back against the bar with a gasp, the room around her spinning unsteadily. Oh, this was just what she needed. Gritting her teeth, Evie passed a hand under her shirt to trace over the bandage on her side. Stickiness met her fingers and brought another groan from her lips. 

With a shaky hand, Evie pulled out her phone. "Hey, Adam. You still around the corner?" 

\-- 

To her dismay, it was Jay who walked into the building, eyes immediately taking in how she was sprawled against the bar with her hand clutching her side. The blood was slowly trickling out in a meager but steady stream and the effects of blood loss had turned the air around her fuzzy and cold. Evie was far more bothered by that than by the burning sensation along her ribs.

"I thought you promised you wouldn't get hurt." Jay crouched beside her, frowning.

"I didn't," Evie protested before realizing that sounded like a lie. "I mean, this isn't from today. But since I hadn't planned on getting rammed into a table, the idea of it reopening wasn't really forefront in my mind." 

"How are you always so eloquent even when you clearly can't see straight?" Jay asked, amused and worried at the same time. 

"Just a talent." 

After quickly inspecting the wound, Jay didn't even bother trying to help her stand, choosing instead to just pick her up. 

Evie accepted it with all the tired angst she could muster up, meaning that she didn't actually protest and instead just let her head fall onto his shoulder like she didn’t hate being a damsel in distress. 

"Murtagh is keeping the girls at his step-mother's house on Wright Street. There's a hidden room in the basement. You have to break down the wall." 

"We got intel that they're already out of the state." Jay’s voice above her head was noticeably stronger than hers. It was annoying.

"They're not." Evie let him set her shotgun in his SUV before grabbing his arm. "Jay, they're not. You have to move today or they will be." 

"Okay." He put a hand on her cheek for a second, calming her before nodding. "Let me tell the others and then we're going to the hospital." 

"Okay," Evie echoed, closing her eyes as he shut the door. She lost track of the moments between him leaving and coming back. His voice asked her to stay awake and she thought she replied. 

The next thing she registered happening was him carrying her again. "You with me?" 

She hummed into his jacket and knew on some level that his calm voice was the exact opposite of how he really felt. Was it good that she knew him so well, or that he cared so much about her? Did it matter? 

When his arms disappeared after setting her on a bed, she rolled in the direction she thought he'd gone. 

"I should get back out there." 

"No," she said it firmly, though it could barely be heard over the din of hospital noise and people hovering around her. Evie wasn’t sure if she wanted him to stay for her own comfort or his safety.

"Is she okay?" Jay asked his brother, because of course Will was there whenever she got hurt. It was just destiny at this point. She was irrevocably tied to the Halstead brothers. That or she was just delirious. 

"She'll be fine, Jay, don't worry. Stop being so dramatic, Evie," Will smiled down at her. 

She glared up at him, starting to feel better now that somebody had given her morphine. "I'm not being dramatic. You're dramatic." 

"That's it, you've found me out." 

Jay chuckled in the background and Evie instantly felt lighter after making him laugh. Making Jay smile was easy, but a laugh was far harder to coerce from him. 

"Didn't I just stitch this up a few days ago?" Will's smile didn't disappear entirely as he tried to keep the mood light while still being totally obvious about his unhappiness with the way she was so flippant about her own health. "And I distinctly remember asking you to refrain from re-injuring yourself." 

"I distinctly remember not promising you anything." MB had gotten her to stay in bed for a whole day, which to most people was to be expected, but Evie had hated every second. Fighting exhaustion was easier than giving in at this point.

"Is it really so hard to give your body the time it needs to heal?" Will wasn't even trying to remain cheerful now. 

Evie watched him stitch her skin back together with dismissive interest. "It's not that I can't take the time," she heard herself say. "It's more that I just forget about it." That was a total lie. The choice to rest or work was entirely a conscious decision and Evie consistently chose the latter.

Will frowned. "I doubt that the pain had completely faded." 

"No, I mean that it just feels normal." 

"It feels normal," Will repeated. 

Jay stepped forward, apparently ready to continue where Will had left off. "Just to clarify, what feels normal is you being injured but continuing to work like you aren't, even if you're still in pain." 

Evie didn't answer, not that she needed to. The brothers understood perfectly well. 

Will continued to stitch in silence until he finished. Jay cleared his throat. "Evie, we don't ask you about your scars-" 

"Because you're smart and know that I wouldn't appreciate it," she shot back immediately. 

"Because we respect your privacy," Will corrected. 

Jay was more blunt. "We know that you've been through hell. Several times. And we don't want to make you talk about it without you bringing it up. But if you're gonna keep being so reckless while you're working with us, I'm gonna start asking." 

Evie sat up and let the room spin, hating that she jumped a little when Jay caught her shoulder to keep her upright. "I'm not afraid to talk about them. I lived my past and I'm surrounded by it every day. I'm not afraid to talk about it. Ask whatever you want. However," and she carefully detached Jay's hand from her shoulder, "if you know nothing else about me, know this: I understand. I understand situations beforehand and in the moment. I understand the other side. I understand my limits and my triggers. I know what I can handle and when I have to step away. I knew that I could go in there alone today and it wouldn't kill me." 

"Why does that have to be the avoidance point?" Will pointed out. "Ever think about taking back up just because it's a good idea? It's a lot easier to trust you when you act more trustworthy." 

"So you'd trust me with myself but not others, is that the problem? I've proved that I can take care of a team." 

"Evie," Jay started but Will stopped him. 

Evie looked at the both of them, knowing that they both had raised good points. Why was it so hard to make simple concessions when they were the truth? "You're right. I should take better care of myself." 

That was all the apology they were going to get and they both saw it. Will nodded, dropped a kiss onto her head and left. Jay watched her wrap Adam's scarf back around her neck and held out his hands to help her up. 

"Oh, are you not going to carry me again?" Evie tried to make it sound like a joke, but to her ears it just sounded tired. Accurate.

Jay smiled. "I thought you'd protest it a bit more now that you've received pain medication." 

"Probably." 

"Also, is that Adam's hat? It's way too big for you." 

"Yeah. He would've given me his coat and shirt if I'd let him." 

"Sounds like him." Jay kept one arm around her back as they exited the hospital with promises to Maggie about someone coming around to do the paperwork. "He was freaking out a little after your call, you know." 

"I'm sure. How come it was you that showed up?" 

"Apparently it was less likely that I'd panic." 

"But you were, a little, on the inside." Evie looked at him sideways. "Weren't you?" 

"You've found me out," Jay agreed good-humoredly. "I care about you. We all do." 

"Yeah," Evie responded softly. "I know you do." 

"And?" 

"Is this a working relationship version of the "I love you" conversation?" Evie sighed, leaning against the window as Jay started the car. "I care about you, too. Happy?" 

"Very." 

Evie smiled with her eyes closed, knowing that Jay was giving her glances during the drive. "Do we have to go to the station?" 

"Yes, we do. Do you have the turns memorized from the hospital?" 

"Maybe. And fine, but you're driving me home and if I fall asleep you have to carry me in." 

"I thought you didn't like being a damsel in distress." 

"Nobody likes being a damsel in distress, Jay. Besides, I would be out of distress because I would be asleep. So like, a damsel in a happy place." 

"You are something else." 

"You found me out." 

Jay snorted, his smile loud even through the dark behind her eyelids. "Don't fall asleep now." 

"Okay," Evie murmured, already planning on doing just that.


End file.
